Ya... How is turning off that coal fired 1500 MW unit near the Cape gonna work out for you New-England?
They are turning that plant off because of a fedgov mandate. This is something most electric consumers are missing.
Here’s how it works, I’m from ND so I will use Theodore Roosevelt National Park as an example.
- Here’s what you find on the taxpayer funded web National park service site for air quality in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park;
http://www.nature.nps.gov/air/permits/aris/thro/impacts.cfm?tab=0#TabbedPanels1
Note that the “haze” in the pictures (something we normally call fog here in ND) is assumed to be caused by air pollution, specifically NOx. Also note that the power plants in ND are downwind of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park
- Groups like Wild Earth Guardians use the EPA to clean up the air in notional parks, in this case, Theodore Roosevelt National Park;
- The EPA responds with threats to take over environmental regulation in ND with mandates for ND power plants to clean up NOx. NOx is supposed to be the cause of the “regional haze” (fog) in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
- The power plant I work at spends 450 million to upgrade its SO2 scrubbers and install a NOx reduction systems. The NOx reduction is accomplished by spraying urea into the boiler at a cost of 200-800 dollars per hour depending on the coal. (These are the costs that are shutting down coal plants in New England and across the nation.)
- The Coop I work for has to raise rates by 30% to cover the cost of meeting the government mandates. (Our rates have doubled in the last ten years mainly to meet government mandates.)
- EPA reimburses the legal costs Wild Earth Guardians incurred suing EPA.
Recap, the costs to the taxpayer/consumer;
- pay for a government web site claiming regional haze is caused by power plant pollution
- the legal costs entities like Wild Earth Guardians incur suing the fedgov.
- the costs to upgrade power plants to meet new pollution control mandates
- the ongoing new and increased costs of lime and urea for SO2 and NOx control.
Consumers/taxpayers really need to learn to drill down to the true root causes and take it up with the people they elected to serve them. There is no better way to kill an economy than to artificially raise the cost of its lifeblood - energy.